El Retiro de los Casasola
It is a Rural House located in the northeast corner of the province of Guadalajara, in the town of Establés, in the region of Molina de Aragón. Strategically located 35 km from the Monasterio de Piedra and 35 km from the Alto Tajo Natural Park and at the head of the Mesa River Valley. It is ideal to experience calm life, meditation and mindfulness through hiking and cultural visits to the area's monumental complex of 15th and 16th century churches and castles.
Establés, the history
Located on a natural path that ascends from Aragón, through the Mesa River, towards the center of the Señorío de Molina de Aragón, it meant that already at the beginning of the repopulation of the territory, around the 12th century in its first half, it was placed in the highest part of the valley a watchtower, and at its feet the town, then humble, which progressively grew in population and value. That tower was one of the primitive defensive fortresses of the independent lordship (first the Lara and then the Castilian monarchs). In 1432, Álvaro de Luna, as chancellor to King Juan II, ordered the castle of Establés to be repaired. In that same fifteenth century, the historical destiny of the town abruptly changed, when it was violently conquered by D. Gastón de la Cerda, Count of Medinaceli, in whose house and territory this place and others nearby were included. The Common of Villa and Tierra de Molina repeatedly requested from their lords, the Catholic Monarchs, that the place and castle of Estables be returned to them. Pedro de Zurita, the Medinaceli's governor, refused to obey royal orders, and the monarchs were forced to use force by sending Diego de Riaño as executive mayor. In 1481, and after certain warlike skirmishes between the people of the Molina Common, led by its alderman Luis Fernández de Alcocer, and the then mayor Sancho Díaz de Zurita, Establés again became part of the Molinés Common, where it continued for centuries.
Church of Our Lady of the Assumption
Large 16th century temple, with a beautiful Mannerist belfry at the foot, and a spacious interior with good Renaissance and Baroque altarpieces. The semicircular arch of its entrance door stands out
Bad Shadow Castle
Medieval castle, which was built by order of its lord, the Count of Medinaceli, in 1450. A certain Gabriel de Ureña was in charge of erecting the fortress, who used his cruelty to obtain cheap materials (stones, beams, etc.) and hence the memory of his bad manners has since been recorded in the natives of the town, which they still call "castle of the bad shadow" which presides over the silhouette of their town. It is a typical fortification of its time, consisting of strong walls that establish a square plan, finishing off its corners with semicircular cubes, the tower at its southern point being the strongest of them. .
Chilluentes Tower
The tower or unpopulated area of Chilluentes, which forms the boundary with the term of Concha, and which allows us to contemplate, in the middle of a high and narrow valley, already at the foot of the Sierra de Aragoncillo, a large defensive tower built in the 12th century, with five stories high, of which only two of its walls remain, as well as a small Romanesque church, -the parish church of that old town of Chilluentes that was deserted in the 16th century- dedicated to San Vicente, and that within its walls it contains a Romanesque font, showing its semicircular apse with a central window, crenellated, decorated with simple geometric and helioform elements
Torrecilla Tower
It is an example of the 12th-13th century fortifications that the Lordship of Molina set up on these lands due to its close border with Aragon and the Common and Lordship of Medinaceli.
Its plan is square and would have several floors. On one of its faces there is a large hole where the small access door to the tower would be, and on the opposite face there is another hole in the wall. One of the stones in the upper part of that hole, you can see a hole in which a stick would be inserted as a hinge for the old rectangular window, which would have been approximately one meter high.
It is located in a deserted area of which only the tower remains. When the town was abandoned, it became part of Establés, and since then the stones of the houses around the tower have been used to enclose the surrounding estates.
Saint John Chapel
In a valley between mountains in the heart of the Sierra de Establés and Aragoncillo stands the hermitage of San Juan Bautista Evangelista from the 17th century. Its portico has a Romanesque style arch.